Videogames and Zombies, Zombies and videogames, they go together like peanut butter and banana (Mmmm, peanut butter and banana). And it seems like every other game you play, whether it be a Resident Evil title, the newly released Cold Fear, or even the new Timesplitters game you can expect to see zombies somewhere, and somehow spread throughout. Well, developers Wideload Games (headed by former Bungie veteran), is adding a new twist to the zombie genre by having you, the player, actually take control of a zombie. The zombies name; Stubbs.
Stubbs is a rather pissed off zombie. The reason behind this is that his grave is being built upon. In 1933, Edward Stubblefield, who was a rather poor salesman, was brutally murdered and buried in a field in Pennsylvania. Twenty-six years later, billionaire industrialist Andrew Monday has built a new city of the future, named Punchbowl, Pennsylvania. The city is filled everything you would expect from a futuristic city; hovering cars, Jetson-style architecture, and a perfectly clean presentation. Of course, it is also built right upon Stubb’s grave.
This new city awakens Stubbs, who unburies himself on Punchbowl’s opening day celebration. Stubb‘s can‘t remember who had killed him, or even why. He is also quite perplexed and why he had been awakened. He doesn’t know jack. He does quickly realize that he is quite hungry for human flesh, thus starting the all-out flesh-eating rage that transforms a peaceful, town, into a chaotic suburb of death.
As I mentioned earlier, as a nice twist to what you would expect, you play as the zombie, not against him. And happily, you’re armed to the teeth. You play Stubbs, a slow-moving, rotting zombie with an undying thirst for human flesh. Your plan is eating every living human you smell. Definitely not a bad set-up for a game.
Unlike the boring zombies that you see now-a-days, Stubbs is resourceful. Though Stubbs cannot carry or use any true weapons, he can perform superbly unique zombie attacks that are all incredibly…um…incredible! First, Stubbs can rip off his limbs and direct them. For example, he can tear off his hand, which can then scurvy across the floor, jump into vents, and travel on its own five fingers!
Another unique feature in the game is that by using your hand, you can jump on and grab hold of a human’s skull, and by doing so you take control over that person. Yes, this means that if the mortal has a gun, you can use it, meaning that the game isn’t all weapons-free.
Through the entirety of the game you will play in a 3rd-person perspective. Stubbs has some truly unique attacks as well. Stubbs can rip out bones from his ribcage, and through them at enemies. Something even odder is that they explode on contact.
Stubb’s can also perform a nasty radial fart attack (his “unholy flatulence” attack). This attack temporarily stubs enemies in close proximity. He also has zombie sputum, a head that doubles as an unholy bowling ball. He can also drive tractors. Really big destructive tractors with sharp pitch forks on the end. Oh joy!
Perhaps the greatest part of the game is the ability to transform humans into undead zombies. Whomever Stubbs eats will turn into one of these zombies, and these new zombies can turn other humans into more zombies. Eventually there will be a massive army of zombies, which the player can control using a simple whistle. This becomes very helpful when having to fight off swarms of humans using bats, pitch forks, or even guns. Stubbs can also grab enemies through windows, etc, where he can eat them up.
Because of Seropian’s (head of Wideload Games) special relation with Bungie, they are letting him use a special, modified and updated version of the Halo 1 engine (yep, that’s Halo 1, not Halo 2). Which means it’s a good looking game with big environments, lots of possibilities for moving objects, and good physics, special effects, and more.
In conclusion, “Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse,†is a twist on traditional zombie games, having you control Stubbs and his various body parts as you persist with the relentless goal of killing every single human you see until the city of Punchbowl lies in flames and ruin. Having some truly unique ideas, and being headed by a former Bungie veteran, this game is sure to be a blast to play when it released later this year.
